Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Sometimes a quick, simple sewing project, like this one is just what I need. I've been feeling out of sorts lately - not physically ill or anything like that - just sort of restless (okay, a little stressed) and that has affected my creative output. Have you ever felt like you just can't settle down and focus on your projects at hand? For me, it's as if I have too many ideas of things to design/make and can't decide on which one to focus on. Silly, I know.

Rather than continue to mentally berate myself for my temporary unproductiveness, I grabbed the idea for these cute bunnies from this book, and got busy.

A small piece of fleece, some simple embroidery and a few minutes of sewing are all that these bunnies take to make. These are really quick to stitch up! Ah, instant gratification. Perhaps now I can tackle my more involved projects with some renewed creative energy. If only I were "quick, like a bunny" with all my sewing projects!

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Look what was delivered to my doorstep, all the way from the talented, Nicolette, in the Netherlands. This quilt represents an international collaboration of artistic expression, lovingly and masterfully made by a lovely friend (read the details here). Can you believe my joy at winning this beauty?

Take a look at a close up of the backing fabric and the gorgeous long arm quilting. Seeing this as her choice for the backing, tells me just how well Nicolette knows me. My favourite colours along with polka dots. It's perfect!

Every block is unique and made with such precision - not just the piecing - but even Nicolette's understanding of colour. Each block holds some delight, like this wonky log cabin block.

So many pretty fabrics, it could be used for a game of "I Spy" or name that designer. ;o)

Nicolette, I'm over the moon with happiness and honoured to have this gorgeous quilt made by you, from the participation of so many lovely bloggers around the globe, for my own. Thank you so much!

Thursday, April 14, 2011

but I can guess what all the chirping is about this morning. It was a lively discussion started by these two robins?

Quickly joined in by a third robin,

a fourth and a fifth...

into a full blown bird conference.

Just a guess... but I think they're in a flap over the latest snowfall. There might even be some blame laying going on over which bird brain thought that migrating here for Spring was such a good idea. ;o)

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

I was in for a lovely surprise when I opened my mailbox this morning. I had two small packets waiting for me. The first was a complete surprise from one of my dearest friends. A sweet gift to let me know that she's thinking of me and couldn't have been better timed. One of the hardest things about moving to a new province, back in 2008, was knowing I would be living hours away from my wonderful girlfriends. We were very much a part of each other's lives and it's been hard living so far apart. I am very blessed with the friends I have in my life and appreciate every email, every card and every phone call that keeps us in touch. Tell me I'm not spoiled, though. Look what she sent! ( My picture doesn't do justice to this special gift.) Dianne sent me these beautiful (they look handcrafted - each is uniquely coloured and sanded so silkily smooth) coconut shell buttons and a gorgeous piece of linen (both from Cambodia). Wow. I'm so tempted to just put these buttons in my pockets so that I can keep touching them, they're so smooth and lovely feeling.

The second packet contained my winnings from a giveaway held last month by Incomparable Buttons. Check out these tiny, adorable penguins! These buttons are handmade in South Africa by some very talented ladies and I'm thrilled to have some of their beautiful handiwork. Have a look at their online catalogue - you won't be disappointed, they have a gorgeous selection and even though the buttons are handmade ceramic, they are washable. You can visit the blog ButtonMad and you may even win one of their frequent giveaways!

Thanks Dianne for your generous and lovely gifts!

Thanks to the ladies at Incomparable Buttons for the beautiful penguin buttons.

I'm still smiling as I dream up the projects I will make using the treats that were in my mailbox today.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Here's the final installment on my finds at the Unused Fabric and Crafts Sale. The main room at the sale contained table upon table of fabric abundance - ranging from corduroy, flannel, polar fleece, cottons, knits to denim (any pretty much anything in between). What bliss to wander through, especially when you could pick up yardage (nothing less than 1metre) for as little as $1!

This is the stack of yardages I trundled home with. :o) You can see it's a varied assortment! I didn't get too carried away... no fun fur purchases this year or anything too wild. I basically went for quilting fabric and some yardage for clothing. Should keep me happily sewing for awhile, don't you think? ;o)

Had to share these lovely pieces separately, so you can see the full impact.

I think the cotton in the pictures (floral prints top and below) are vintage. They have such a soft hand - almost like voile.

This sweet print is also cotton, perhaps vintage?... and there's metres of it. I'm almost considering making a dress for myself from it. I bet it would look great made into a dress from one of my vintage patterns. On the other hand, there's enough here to work as quilt backing, which I'm always on the search for. Tough choice! ;o)

Well, I've got my newest finds freshly laundered and ready for me to get busy sewing. If I continue to visit this annual sale, I need to pick up the pace with my sewing output or I'm going to run out of stash space. lol

Sunday, April 10, 2011

seem rather obvious, I suppose. Well at least to any fabricaholic, such as myself. lol Yesterday, I teased you with images of all the notions I scooped up (some in scary large amounts!) and now I'm going to share some of the fabric goodness that I found. For the past two years I've attended the sale, I mostly stayed away from fabric buying - for obvious reasons - we were moving house and let's face it, I already have a stash to play with. This year I decided spend less on notions and more on fabric. Each year I've attended, there's a separate room devoted to quilting fabrics, but this year the organizers came up with the clever idea of making some bundles using up the smaller yardages instead of only selling single fabric pieces. You can guess what happened...

I got hold of three bundles of browns for future projects (because you know I adore scrappy patchwork)

and when I got them home I opened up the bundles to discover that each held a minimum of 8 different fabrics.

No fabric was repeated in any of the bundles, so I've really added to my stash of browns to be able to do some patchwork magic.

Then I grabbed some bundles in blue,

a couple of red bundles,

and finally, one pink bundle. Did I mention that these lovely bundles were $5 each? I found that the yardage of the pieces would be anywhere from a fat eighth up to a yard with at least 8 different fabrics/bundle. Seemed like a fabulous and thrifty way to enhance my stash for patchwork projects!

Quilting fabric wasn't the end of my fabric finds. How about a peek at my other (some vintage) fabric finds tomorrow?

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Today was a day I look forward to all year long. It was the annual Unused Fabric and Crafts Sale with all the proceeds going to charity. I stumbled upon this sale within months of moving to this city and this marks my third time attending. Knowing what to expect and having a game plan in mind, this year I braved being amongst the crowd that gathered waiting for the doors to the sale to open. Ready to see some sewing treasures? (I'll just share one of the shopping bags I filled and show more tomorrow).

Buttons were hard hit by the early morning crowd, I didn't get anywhere near them until things thinned out and by that time the box that had been stuffed to overflowing was down to about 6 baggies of buttons. I took two. ;o)

Here are a few of my favourites - take a look at the prices on these. Definitely vintage!

Everything was pre-bundled this year, so it made pricing quicker and easier for the volunteers. So I was grabbing up bags of sewing notions like buckles, self-cover buttons and vintage ric rac (I know Amy will tease me about buying more ric rac because there's no way I used up all that I bought last year... and here I am bringing home more! How can I explain my penchant for ric rac.... ;o)

Next up, I couldn't resist a big bag of elastic or one filled with ribbons and trims.

Finally, here's where I went a bit crazy in the notion section. Want to guess how many zippers are in the basket? As I mentioned, everything was pre-bundled this year - including zippers. The past couple of years you could sort through them individually, which I really liked. This year the zippers were sealed into baggies with 10 zips to a bag and the colours were mixed. Knowing that zippers are one notion I use quite a lot of, I tried to find baggies that had some basic coloured zips. The price is so fantastic for zips that it wasn't until I got home that I counted up all the baggies of zippers I had stuffed into my shopping bag. Would you believe that I grabbed 13!? Yeah, so that means I just added130 assorted zippers to my stash in one go, for the grand sum of $13. Now you know one of the reasons I look forward to this sale each year. Come back tomorrow and I'll show you a few more reasons. ;o)

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Spring, that is. Since our super snowy Saturday, we've had some blue skies, some melting and a backyard visit from this lovely fellow.

He answered my questions about what season this is supposed to be and what does he eat when the ground is blanketed with inches of snow.

Apparently our snow hasn't sent him flying off to warmer climates so, that means I should learn to be patient and trust that Spring will soon make it's appearance.

Keeping that in mind, I've spent the past few days doing some Spring cleaning, but I did take some time to work on a project for a new friend. I don't want to spoil the surprise, so I'm just giving a bit of a peek for now. There's nothing so uplifting as working with cheery colours when it's dreary out (and as luck would have it, we received some more snow today... so in between my cleaning I'm taking time to play with more cheery fabrics ;o).

Okay, Mr. Robin, you better be right about Spring being on its way. ;o)

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Unbelievable that less than 24 hours ago, our driveway, the sidewalk and the street were COMPLETELY snow-less... there was only a bit of snow left to melt in our front yard. My poor hubby was digging out our van so he could go work today ( and seriously wondering why he'd agreed to go working on a Sat.).

Check out the evergreens in our back yard. Completely snow laden whereas yesterday not only were they bare of snow, but there was lawn to be seen.

Here's one last shot, just to make you jealous of our Spring weather. ;o) Doesn't our deck look inviting?! Snowball fight, anyone? lol

Needless to say, I'm staying inside, making soup, sewing and double checking the calendar. I mean, is this really Spring... because I think my calendar must be wrong. ;o)